During Summer 2018, a faculty mentor at University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) led an interdisciplinary team of three undergraduate researchers tasked with creating a digital exhibition utilizing the library’s special collection, the Coslet-Sapienza Fantasy and Science Fiction Fanzine Collection.
Over a four week period, the students examined about a dozen titles of the thousands of zines in the collection, exploring various themes including identity, community, consumption, labor, and the politics of alternative culture. The completed digital exhibition includes an overview of the collection, focusing specifically on its history, an introduction to fandom, a discussion of several of the printing technologies utilized for publication, and information about the Fantasy Amateur Press Association (FAPA) which continues to curate fanzines for the larger science fiction community. The student researchers also created individual digital stories, each examining the role of the zines in context of World War II. Finally, they each developed a more focused written exploration of their research. The three essays focused on a feminist SF zine, fandom’s impact on society examining eventual science fiction luminaries including Bradbury and Asimov, and one of the student’s passion for a zine titled Cosmag.
The roundtable includes the students, the faculty mentor, and a special collections librarian who manages the collection. Panelists will review the CoLab experience and research, highlight information about the collection, provide resources for accessing and researching the collection, and discuss possible future projects available to conference attendees. Amazing Stories is a project of 2018 UMBC Interdisciplinary CoLab. For more information please visit http://umbcspecialcollections.omeka.net
Donald Snyder, Senior Lecturer, Media and Communication Studies Susan Graham, Special Collections Librarian Marzuq Hakim, Computer Science Ashley Mitchell, Biochemistry Rebecca Wireman, Media and Communication Studies
About the presentersDonald Snyder
Donald Snyder is a principal lecturer in Media & Communication Studies at University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) where he teaches courses on media history, theory, and practice. His research focuses on beta testing, discourses of production and consumption in computer mediated environments, educational technology, and amateur digital archivists.
Susan Graham
Susan Graham is the Special Collections Librarian at the Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), where she works with the photography, popular culture, rare books, alternative press, radical literature, and digital collections. She also teaches archival, visual, and information literacy. She holds B.A.s in Visual Arts (Photography) and Anthropology from UMBC and an MLS from the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Rebecca Wireman
Rebeca Wireman is currently enrolled at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and working on her B.A. in Media and Communication Studies and a Minor in Gender and Women’s Studies, 2018.
Ashley Mitchell
Junior at University of Maryland, Baltimore County pursuing a Biochemistry and Molecular Biology B.S. degree.
Marzuq Hakim
B.S. in Computer Science, 2021